At the end of the aeon of Pieces, the zeitgeist is a storm. Wisdom comes from within if we question authority, and our actions determine our identity. In like a lion, out like a lamb, the storm wind blows. Beware Caesar the ides of March are come.
"... shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "

Friday, December 26, 2008

ZERO: An Investigation into 9/11, has one central thesis - that the official version of the events surrounding the attacks on 9/11 can not be true. This brand new feature documentary from Italian production company Telemaco explores the latest scientific evidence and reveals dramatic new witness testimony, which directly conflicts with the US Government's account.Featuring presentations from intellectual heavy weights; Gore Vidal, and Noble Prize winner Dario Fo, the film challenges assumptions surrounding the attacks. In the words of the Italian daily newspaper, Il Corriere de da Sera, "What results is a sequence of contradictions, gaps, and omissions of stunning gravity."

The importance of this film can not be overstated. If its thesis is correct, the justification for going to war in Iraq is built on a series of outrageous lies.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Writer and activist Naomi Klein said recently, "This is a progressive moment. It's ours to lose."

I couldn't agree more.

I've been an activist for more than 30 years. I've fought for human rights, for peace, for the environment. I spent years working to elect progressive leaders.

I've worked on progressive issues during some exciting times.

Yet this moment is like no other - in terms of opportunity, urgency, and responsibility.

Through the Reagan years, the George HW Bush era, and even the disappointing eight years of Bill Clinton, we progressives worked hard only to lose ground.

Then came eight years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney - a period in our history that turned out to be darker than any of us could have imagined.

But, as they say, it's always darkest before the dawn.

Next month, the Bush-Cheney nightmare will come to an end.

I don't have false expectations for our new President. But his election made clear that Americans reject the trickle-down economics and the warmongering foreign policy that Bush and Cheney took beyond the tipping point.

We want big change.

No more crony capitalism, no more empire building, no more denial of science.

No more bullshit - it's time to solve our problems.

We have before us now an unprecedented opportunity to build a just, sustainable society.

More important, we have a responsibility to do this.

In 2009, CommonDreams.org will take this sense of responsibility to new heights. Will you help? Please donate online now to help us reach our Year-End goal. (Or you can use our print and mail form if you prefer to donate by check).

I firmly believe we progressives can have a real impact now. But only if we act. And act quickly and courageously, while momentum is still on our side.

It's time to take greater responsibility for our Democracy, time to sweep aside the old, divisive politics, time to stand up to special interests, time to demand a government that serves the public good.

There's not a minute to waste - or this opportunity may slip away.

When I founded CommonDreams.org 11 years ago, it was with the hope that we would create a thriving online community of progressives who shared these basic ideals: that every individual is entitled to the same opportunity to be safe, to prosper, to live a meaningful life.

I believed then - and still do - that the best way to achieve the 'common dreams' of every individual, is to work together for the common good.

I'm proud to say that throughout some of the most treacherous and disheartening years of our Democracy, CommonDreams.org has stayed true to its vision and our mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.

Thanks to the support of you and thousands like you, we created a Progressive Newswire, the only place where you can check daily for the latest news about the progressive issues and organizations you follow.

And every single day, we've brought you the best progressive news, the best progressive opinions.

We persisted in exposing injustice and corruption when, sometimes, it felt as if our voices would never be heard.

But knowledge is power, and I believe that our voices have finally been heard.

So, what's next?

As we look beyond the darkness of the last eight years, to a brighter future, I ask you to join in restoring America's Democracy to what it was intended to be: a government that respects the rights and common dreams of all of its citizens, regardless of race, class or gender.

Citizen engagement has always been the key to a healthy society. If ever there was a time to re-engage in the democratic process, that time is now.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

This is NO LONGER THE USA! This is the Totalitarian Fascist Imperial Government, formerly known as the USA.

You have FREE SPEACH ZONES, The USA IS A FREE SPEACH ZONE.You can be TAKEN, IMPRISONED, RENDERED, TORTURED, and never receive a trial, or even be charged. NO HABIUS CORPUS, no justice.You no longer have the BILL OF RIGHTS!

Without limit, Executive Power has become totalitarian. Influenced by Corporate Money (Bribes) our government is Fascist.In attacking other nations, preemptively, without legitimate threat or provocation. We have become imperialists, to fund the war profiteers.

We must take back our Constitution NOW, or we will loose it forever.Without Liberty, what matters our economy?Without freedom, what good is health?Without accountability, there is no justice.

Our military has been out-sourced to the highest bider, and we have nothing left to pay these mercenaries.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

This next year will be one of great change, and by that I mean some people are going to get what's commin' to them. As people flee from the Bush legacy, and the heros start to take over, there will be 'collateral damage'. I'm not saying it will all be fair, but it will be pretty.

One new American Hero goes by the name "Matthew Alexander". He is an Ex-Interrogator for the US Military Intelligence, and has written a book (that almost didn't get published) about how TORTURE actually decreases our national security (go figure).

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse.

Next time America debates the definition of torture, lets take a good long look at where this got us.

I drive an American car. It's a Chrysler. That's not an endorsement. It's more like a cry for pity. And now for a decades-old story, retold ad infinitum by tens of millions of Americans, a third of whom have had to desert their country to simply find a damn way to get to work in something that won't break down:

My Chrysler is four years old. I bought it because of its smooth and comfortable ride. Daimler-Benz owned the company then and had the good grace to place the Chrysler chassis on a Mercedes axle and, man, was that a sweet ride!

When it would start.

More than a dozen times in these years, the car has simply died. Batteries have been replaced, but that wasn't the problem. My dad drives the same model. His car has died many times, too. Just won't start, for no reason at all.

A few weeks ago, I took my Chrysler in to the Chrysler dealer here in northern Michigan -- and the latest fixes cost me $1,400. The next day, the vehicle wouldn't start. When I got it going, the brake warning light came on. And on and on.

You might assume from this that I couldn't give a rat's ass about these miserably inept crapmobile makers down the road in Detroit city. But I do care. I care about the millions whose lives and livelihoods depend on these car companies. I care about the security and defense of this country because the world is running out of oil -- and when it runs out, the calamity and collapse that will take place will make the current recession/depression look like a Tommy Tune musical.

And I care about what happens with the Big 3 because they are more responsible than almost anyone for the destruction of our fragile atmosphere and the daily melting of our polar ice caps.

Congress must save the industrial infrastructure that these companies control and the jobs they create. And it must save the world from the internal combustion engine. This great, vast manufacturing network can redeem itself by building mass transit and electric/hybrid cars, and the kind of transportation we need for the 21st century.

And Congress must do all this by NOT giving GM, Ford and Chrysler the $34 billion they are asking for in "loans" (a few days ago they only wanted $25 billion; that's how stupid they are -- they don't even know how much they really need to make this month's payroll. If you or I tried to get a loan from the bank this way, not only would we be thrown out on our ear, the bank would place us on some sort of credit rating blacklist).

Two weeks ago, the CEOs of the Big 3 were tarred and feathered before a Congressional committee who sneered at them in a way far different than when the heads of the financial industry showed up two months earlier. At that time, the politicians tripped over each other in their swoon for Wall Street and its Ponzi schemers who had concocted Byzantine ways to bet other people's money on unregulated credit default swaps, known in the common vernacular as unicorns and fairies.

But the Detroit boys were from the Midwest, the Rust (yuk!) Belt, where they made real things that consumers needed and could touch and buy, and that continually recycled money into the economy (shocking!), produced unions that created the middle class, and fixed my teeth for free when I was ten.

For all of that, the auto heads had to sit there in November and be ridiculed about how they traveled to D.C. Yes, they flew on their corporate jets, just like the bankers and Wall Street thieves did in October. But, hey, THAT was OK! They're the Masters of the Universe! Nothing but the best chariots for Big Finance as they set about to loot our nation's treasury.

Of course, the auto magnates used be the Masters who ruled the world. They were the pulsating hub that all other industries -- steel, oil, cement contractors -- served. Fifty-five years ago, the president of GM sat on that same Capitol Hill and bluntly told Congress, what's good for General Motors is good for the country. Because, you see, in their minds, GM WAS the country.

What a long, sad fall from grace we witnessed on November 19th when the three blind mice had their knuckles slapped and then were sent back home to write an essay called, "Why You Should Give Me Billions of Dollars of Free Cash." They were also asked if they would work for a dollar a year. Take that! What a big, brave Congress they are! Requesting indentured servitude from (still) three of the most powerful men in the world. This from a spineless body that won't dare stand up to a disgraced president nor turn down a single funding request for a war that neither they nor the American public support. Amazing.

Let me just state the obvious: Every single dollar Congress gives these three companies will be flushed right down the toilet. There is nothing the management teams of the Big 3 are going to do to convince people to go out during a recession and buy their big, gas-guzzling, inferior products. Just forget it. And, as sure as I am that the Ford family-owned Detroit Lions are not going to the Super Bowl -- ever -- I can guarantee you, after they burn through this $34 billion, they'll be back for another $34 billion next summer.

So what to do? Members of Congress, here's what I propose:

1. Transporting Americans is and should be one of the most important functions our government must address. And because we are facing a massive economic, energy and environmental crisis, the new president and Congress must do what Franklin Roosevelt did when he was faced with a crisis (and ordered the auto industry to stop building cars and instead build tanks and planes): The Big 3 are, from this point forward, to build only cars that are not primarily dependent on oil and, more importantly to build trains, buses, subways and light rail (a corresponding public works project across the country will build the rail lines and tracks). This will not only save jobs, but create millions of new ones.

2. You could buy ALL the common shares of stock in General Motors for less than $3 billion. Why should we give GM $18 billion or $25 billion or anything? Take the money and buy the company! (You're going to demand collateral anyway if you give them the "loan," and because we know they will default on that loan, you're going to own the company in the end as it is. So why wait? Just buy them out now.)

3. None of us want government officials running a car company, but there are some very smart transportation geniuses who could be hired to do this. We need a Marshall Plan to switch us off oil-dependent vehicles and get us into the 21st century.

This proposal is not radical or rocket science. It just takes one of the smartest people ever to run for the presidency to pull it off. What I'm proposing has worked before. The national rail system was in shambles in the '70s. The government took it over. A decade later it was turning a profit, so the government returned it to private/public hands, and got a couple billion dollars put back in the treasury.

This proposal will save our industrial infrastructure -- and millions of jobs. More importantly, it will create millions more. It literally could pull us out of this recession.

In contrast, yesterday General Motors presented its restructuring proposal to Congress. They promised, if Congress gave them $18 billion now, they would, in turn, eliminate around 20,000 jobs. You read that right. We give them billions so they can throw more Americans out of work. That's been their Big Idea for the last 30 years -- layoff thousands in order to protect profits. But no one ever stopped to ask this question: If you throw everyone out of work, who's going to have the money to go out and buy a car?

These idiots don't deserve a dime. Fire all of them, and take over the industry for the good of the workers, the country and the planet.

What's good for General Motors IS good for the country. Once the country is calling the shots.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Their are few people that we can easily point to and say: "This guy is to blame for the EVIL our government has committed in our name." John Woo is one of those people. This guy should work for some Communist Dictator as chief of propaganda, or Torture Czar, but instead he gets the US "Medal of Freedom". Do we live in Bizarro World?

The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President (Paperback)
by Vincent Bugliosi (Author), Molly Ivins (Foreword), Gerry Spence (Author)

Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (Paperback)
by Mark Crispin Miller (Author)

The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (Hardcover)
by Andrew Bacevich (Author)

The Dark Side - Jane Mayer

Find out about "Learned Helplessness"

Standard Operating Procedure

Right is Wrong - Ariana Huffington

The Post American World

The Revolution: A Manifesto - Ron Paul

What Happened - Scott McClellan

Fire-Breathing Liberal - Robert Wexler

Blackwater: Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill

Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians by Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian

“Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman” by Mary Tillman

Imperial Life inside the Emerald City - Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Zeitgeist: The Movie - 2007 by Peter Joseph

This blog was inspired in 2007 by Peter Joseph's movie Zeitgeist. Watch the first two below, then to prepare for the 2010 release of the third in the series: Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. This should be interesting.